When Truth is replaced by Silence, the Silence is a

Rape and Murder of a Young Mother in Mannar:

Ida Camelita, Kantharasa Jeyamalar, Bahiya Ummah,

Ehambaram Nanthakumar Wijakala, Sinnathamby Sivamani

and now Mary Madeleine share something awful in

common. They were all allegedly raped and tortured

(four of them were brutally murdered) in Mannar by the

Sri Lankan armed forces. On June 8 th 2006, a young

mother, Mary Madeline, her husband, Moorthy Martin,

son Dilakshan and daughter Lakshika were brutally

tortured and murdered in their home in Vankalai,

Mannar. Neighbors saw three Sri Lanka military

personnel near their house around the time of murder

but, while the soldiers have acknowledged that they

were there carrying out a routine check up, the Mannar

army commanding officer has ruled out any possibility

of his men being involved in the murders. This

suggests that the military authorities won't help with

any investigation of the alleged perpetrators. There

will, of course, be a protest or two and a few

petitions of this nature. The Sri Lanka military,

despite the eyewitnesses, will continue to blame it on

the LTTE or on paramilitary groups. The LTTE, while

denying allegations of its involvement, will continue

to point its fingers at the Sri Lanka military. The

international community and Sri Lanka Monitoring

Mission will issue a statement condemning the evil

act. By the end of this month Mary Madeleine's case

will rest without peace in some archive.

In this context, we would like to highlight similar

previous incidents in Mannar, including the rapes of

Ehambaram Nanthakumar Wijakala and Sinnathamby

Sivamani, allegedly by members of the Mannar police's

Counter-Subversive Unit, on 19 th March 2001. Wijakala

was pregnant at the time of the rape and Sivamani,

mother of three children, had her younger son

witnessing the cruel sexual assault committed on her

while she was under police custody. Despite threats to

their lives, both these courageous women filed

fundamental rights cases for unlawful arrest and

detention and custodial rape. They identified three

police officers and nine navy personnel as the

perpetrators of these crimes. The accused, who were

transferred from Mannar after the incidents, filed a

petition requesting the transfer of their cases to

Anuradhapura due to alleged threats against their

lives. Since then both victims and their family

members underwent continuous harassment at the hand of

the military and repeatedly received death threats.

The case dragged on for over four years, in the course

of which Wijakala has gone missing and Sivamani

received many threats to the effect that she will be

killed if she comes to Anuradhapura for the court

hearings. The case was listed to be heard in

Anuradhapura High Court on September 21, 2005 but both

the victims did not turn up.

There are many women like Wijakala and Sivamani who

suffer and bear the scars of such brutal crimes while

their violators enjoy amnesty and continue to commit

such malicious war crimes against minority women. We

are fully aware of the fact that sexual harassment and

assault, torture, mutilation, rape and murder are not

mere misfortunes of armed conflict, but strategic

weapons of war that have been used against us for the

dreadful purpose of spreading terror, destabilizing

societies and breaking resistance.

We wish to highlight here that rape is amongst the

gravest of all human rights violations and, under

international law, has been deemed a crime against

humanity and a war crime. It was alleged that Mary

Madeleine (27) was raped and stabbed in her chest and

her daughter Lakshika (9) was stabbed in her vaginal

area. Madeleine and her family had fled Sri Lanka and

lived as refugees in India for many years. They

returned last year when there was some hope for peace

and settled down in Vankalai only to be killed in this

despicable manner.

We, Mannar women, are calling on the Sri Lankan

government to immediately launch a thorough,

independent, and impartial investigation into the

killing of Mary Madeleine and her family. We demand

that such an investigation be conducted with the

participation of members of independent human rights

organizations.

We also call upon the President make sure that all

reported cases of murder, torture and sexual violence

committed by the armed forces against women are

investigated properly and prosecuted where necessary.

We further call on international donors to provide

special support to help protect survivors of state

sponsored sexual violence and increase the victims'

access to the justice system locally and, if

necessary, internationally as well.

Lastly, while strongly condemning all attacks on

civilians Tamils, Muslims or Sinhalese, we call upon

all the warring parties in Sri Lanka to immediately

stop hostilities and resume peace talks with a genuine

commitment to finding a lasting political solution to

the conflict.

By Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy (

mwfhrd@yahoo.com)

"When Truth is replaced by Silence, the Silence is a

Lie"